Product Description

FIRST IN A NEW SERIES - Canadian Dinosaurs! This low-mintage, meticulously detailed and engrave one troy ounce, pure silver proof features the dinosaur-like reptile Bathygnathus Borealis!

The new Canadian Dinosaurs program starts off right with the dinosaur-like reptile Bathygnathus Borealis! The design image by Canadian artist Julius Csotonyi features an interpretation of what this mysterious reptile may have looked like. The scientific accuracy of the depiction was verified by palaeontologists of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology. A limited mintage of just 8,500 and a highly popular subject matter, combined with exceptional design and traditional engraving, mean that this beauty is sure to be a favorite among coin collectors, archaeologists, palaeontologists and dinosaur fans alike!Fearsome reptiles released so in the Canadian Dinosaurs program include:

Viewed from its front left side, Bathygnathus borealis approaches menacingly, displaying the large, powerful, tooth-filled jaw whose discovery first brought this scary creature into the limelight! Depicted here as similar to Dimetrodon, we see the mammal-like reptiles powerful, low-slung body. Its muscular, claw-tipped front limbs bow slightly to the sides of its squat body, its front left claw raised as it walks forward. Its hind left leg is similarly bowed and its hind right foot is just visible beneath the low belly, raised in unison with the front left limb in a lizard-like walking motion. The animals long and powerful tail curves behind it. From the animals back rises one of the key Dimetrodon features: the tall, spiny, skin-covered dorsal sail used to regulate its body temperature.

The Mysterious Bathygnathus borealis Though the current North American landscape is geologically recent, the continent has teemed with life for hundreds of millions of years. Clues to the life story of our land and the creatures that once lived here lie encased in rock and earth. Solving the mystery of how they lived and died has captivated American researchers for over a century!

One of the first fossil discoveries to capture the Canadian imagination was that of Bathygnathus borealis. In 1845, while digging a freshwater well near New London, Prince Edward Island, a man named Donald McLeod found what appeared to be part of the jaw of an ancient sharp-toothed animal. He gave it to Sir John William Dawson (a father of Canadian geology and paleontology), who later sold it to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, in the care of American paleontologist Joseph Leidy, to be studied. Initially, Leidy incorrectly suggested the bone was part of a dinosaurs lower jaw. At the time, dinosaurs were known from incomplete skeletons in Europe, but in North America almost solely from footprints, which led to this early misidentification.

It wasn't until 1905 that the bone was correctly identified as part of the upper jaw of a sphenacodontid, a family of pelycosaur-grade mammal-like reptiles or synapsids, animals that lived from the Late Pennsylvanian to middle Permian ages. Based on similarities of the jaw bones, experts now believe that the specimen could actually belong to the sail-back Dimetrodon or a similar animal, although fossil evidence of a sail has yet to be found. If Bathygnathus was similar to Dimetrodon, the large sail on its back could have helped regulate its body temperature.

Though exact details about the appearance and lifestyle of Bathygnathus borealis remain elusive, palaeontologists have been able to glean considerable information from this single fragment of upper jaw bone and its discovery site. They know the creature lived between 290 and 260 million years ago, when what is now Prince Edward Island lay near the equator. Its teeth suggest it was a large carnivorous synapsid that could have reached 7 to 10 feet. To this day the Bathygnathus borealis jaw bone remains the highest-quality specimen of the Permian period ever found on Prince Edward Island.

With its early mis-identification as a dinosaur, Bathygnathus was long considered the first Canadian dinosaur discovery but its revised identity does not diminish its scientific and historical significance, making it the first pelycosaur ever discovered in the world.

Purity Note The Royal Canadian Mint refines the purest silver in the world. The RCM is also the only mint in the world to issue commemorative coins in a .9999 fineness. This one ounce silver proof is 99.99% pure!

A depiction of the dinosaur-like Bathygnathus borealis, by artist Julius Csotonyi. This design has been approved by the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology. The date of issue and denomination are both indicated.

Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, in profile facing right. This portrait, the fourth effigy of the queen to appear on Canadian Coinage, was executed by the artist Susanna Blunt. The legend ELIZABETH II D. G. REGINA ("Elizabeth II, Queen by the Grace of God") also appears.

The coin is encapsulated inside a burgundy leatherette, clamshell-style presentation case, lined with black velvet and protected by an outer sleeve. An individually-numbered certificate of authenticity is included.